1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to sports and sporting goods and is specifically related to an indication of a contact point between two participants or between one participant and a target in combat sports practice.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In many combat sports such as boxing, savat (French foot fighting), karate, etc. points are awarded based upon the number of contacts made between opponents as well as the position of the contact. In boxing, for example, the position and exact contact point of a blow to the head or body is not important and it is the number of contacts occurring per round which will determine who is awarded how many points for that round. However, in karate and in particular amateur point karate, it is the actual point of contact which determines the winner or loser of a match. Generally, three to four judges position themselves around two participants and when all or a majority of the judges agree as to contact and location of the contact, the point is awarded to the appropriate party.
Because of the speed of hand (foot) movement involved and the protective gear worn by the participants, one can appreciate that it is extremely difficult to visually observe whether actual contact was made and the precise location of any such contact. The participants are trained to deliver non-lethal and non-disabling blows in order to protect their opponents against serious injury. However, it also behooves a contestant to deliver a hard enough blow that the judges can clearly appreciate that contact was made in the desired location. Accordingly, it benefits participants to perhaps be overaggressive and to err on the side of too much contact rather than too little contact. This results in inadvertent injuries to participants of the sport.
The necessity for having four judges positioned around the participants means that an extraordinary number of people are necessary for point karate tournaments and matches. While it would be possible to video tape each match, at least two separate camera angles would be required to ensure complete coverage, requiring at least two cameramen and a judge to review the video tapes and determine at which point a blow was delivered which is sufficient to award a score to the individual. This would be less personnel intensive but would be extremely expensive especially for large tournaments.
Additionally, point karate rules presently permit scoring of more than one point with the same type of punch, i.e., a karate "chop", toe kick, etc. Therefore, an individual who is expert at only one punch can score enough repetitive points to win ove his opponent. A rules change is anticipated which will allow only one point to be awarded for each different type of punch. This would be exceedingly difficult to judge visually and to be remembered during even a two minute match.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,729,024 to Guttmann teaches the use of an ink reservoir in the end of a boxing glove of an animated toy puppet in order to provide a record in terms of visible ink of where one toy puppet has "hit" the other toy puppet. As can be imagined, the application of this concept to actual combat sport participants would result in ink stains all over the various contestants and the officials not knowing whether the ink smudge was indeed caused by an opponent or by the participants own glove. After several rounds in a tournament, a participant might be covered with ink smudges making it exceedingly difficult to determine whether a particular smudge is from a recent contact or an old contact.
Soviet Union Patent No. 598,613 teaches the utilization of impact transducers in a boxers clothing which upon being impacted by an opponent's glove provide an electronic pulse to a recording mechanism which indicates the existence of a contact and its location. Since the place and number of impacts can be recorded, the winner of a boxing match can be determined. However, such a system is expensive and would require either a wireless transmission system or each boxer to wear the recording device for later playback to determine who won the particular round. For several hundred participants in a point karate tournament to wear such devices would require an enormous expenditure of funds for the equipment initially and for the read-out of the equipment after each match. Furthermore, the emphasis is still upon making a sufficiently hard contact to close the contacts in the transducer and of course the system does not take into account the possibility of wireless or transducer failures which may occur in the rugged impact environment, especially with electrical/mechanical devices.